Table of Contents
What is collateral circulation and why is it important?
Collateral circulation potentially offers an important alternative source of blood supply when the original vessel fails to provide sufficient blood. Timely enlargement of collaterals may even avoid transmural myocardial infarction (MI) and death in symptomatic patients.
Is there collateral circulation in the heart?
Anastomotic channels, known as collateral vessels, can develop in the heart as an adaptation to ischemia [1,2]. They serve as conduits that bridge severe stenoses or connect a territory supplied by one epicardial coronary artery with that of another [3].
What is collateral artery in the heart?
Collateral vessels are small blood vessels that connect the aorta (the major vessel carrying oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the rest of the body) and the main pulmonary artery (carrying oxygen-depleted blood from heart to lungs).
What does collateral mean in medical terms?
collateral. noun. Medical Definition of collateral (Entry 2 of 2) 1 : a branch especially of a blood vessel, nerve, or the axon of a nerve cell excitation of axon collaterals. 2 : a bodily part (as a ligament) that is lateral in position.
Where does collateral circulation occur?
Abundant collateral circulation to the stomach, duodenum, and rectum accounts for the paucity of ischemic events in these areas. The splenic flexure and sigmoid colon have limited anastomoses, and ischemic damage is more common in these locations.
When does collateral circulation develop?
Cardiologists have long been aware of the occurrence of large and often epicardial collateral vessels after total or subtotal occlusion of a major coronary artery (fig 1). These usually become visible within two weeks following an occlusion, and they arise from preformed arterioles.
How to improve collateral circulation?
Abstract. The coronary arteries have been regarded as end arteries for decades.
What is collateral circulation and what?
The collateral circulation is a network of specialized endogenous bypass vessels that is present in most tissues and provides protection against ischemic injury caused by ischemic stroke, coronary atherosclerosis, peripheral artery disease, and other conditions and diseases.
Do all areas of the body have collateral circulation?
This is extremely important, as these collateral channels maintain blood supply to areas that may be affected by bending, such as the elbow and knee, which have a rich collateral network. Most of the organs in the body, with some exceptions (brain, heart), have collateral circulation.
What is an example of collateral circulation?
Collateral circulation is the alternate circulation around a blocked artery or vein via another path, such as nearby minor vessels. An example of the usefulness of collateral circulation is a systemic thromboembolism in cats. Click to see full answer. Similarly, what are collateral vessels?